I'm calling it now...

As much as it pains me to say it, the Primal Scream album will be the biggest disappointment of 2006:

http://www.nme.com/news/primal-scream/22099

Lazy Sunday

It's a well deserved Lazy Sunday here that involves ordering take away, reading the paper (The Times for Irene, the NME for me obviously), and catching up on wrestling and HBO randomness. Earlier this weekend, on Friday night, the Stewart Manor All-Stars aka The Gold Street boys (depending on how long you've known us) made our way to the hipster playground Piano's to check out Baby Dayliner, of whom I have written about here before. Piano's is a fucking mess of hipsters and jackasses and to make it worse, they don't seem to have a capacity limit in this place. Sardine central. It was wack. It was so crowded that Brandt and Al (who got me turned onto Dayliner long before we made the Baby Show connection) couldn't even get in the place. Anyway, G was curious because of Dayliner's Baby Show connection, and about halfway into his set we figured out which guy he was in the show (he was the "You must stop sweatin me guy". I know, you dont know what the fuck that means, its ok), and we could not believe it. I gotta dig up the tapes. Anyhow, he was really good and the stuff from his new album (out in March) is more disco flavoured, which I like a lot.

Happy to get out out of Piano's, G and I caught up with B and Al for some drinks at upstairs portion of 2A, which was nice and a helluva a lot less crowded. It kinda ended bad as Al's jacket was stolen, complete with cel phone in the pocket, but Al, being Al, didn't get too upset about it. Total Champ though it might have been the booze ;-) Brandt, being young, had to go home early cause he had a big day the next day with yours truly working on the tunes you will be loving to death someday. The Gold Street Boys then kept it real and brokeback till the wee hours and justifying 27 years of friendship. MOG.

Saturday so my unshowered still semi drunk ass bringing the stench back to the HF experionce which was muy caliente as we worked prepping the soon to be classic OUR FAITH, which is our spanish language debut with our special guest Leo. Per usual, the song is the hot shit and with some more tweaking and an appearance from Chaz himself, this is going to be a realy defining HF track. We're moving at a nice clip finally.

The evening was low key, though it featured a shower, finally and a nice dinner at Poetessa. We made a pit stop at Toy Tokyo and Irene blew a large cash sum on one of my dream Star Wars toys: the 400% HAN SOLO STORMTROOPER KUBRICK. Don't let this photo fool you, this is 400x larger than the average Kubrick, thus making it small statue. It owns. Then we went home and passed out and slept for a really long time.

Though I had a good weekend, it would have been a lot better had I been at this: http://www.nme.com/news/smiths/22085

Tonight is the Royal Rumble, which sadly I will not be watching with G as his small nephew has arrived from San Diego, so Uncle time is in effect. We'll try and get some pix of G and the clone later this week.

F

The Face...at last.

Irene and I had a brief but enjoyable summit with Peter Saintface this evening. Yes, he and I pre-arranged the meet, it wasn't our usual randomness, but nonetheless a good time. We both have CD's out, so it was time to make the exchange. Despite having the unmastered version of the album for some time, I am still like a kid at Christmas getting a new CD of a band I like. I'm not sure how you can order the CD yet, but it must be soon, so keep checking www.saintface.com and www.myspace.com/saintface and get your hands on this beautiful thing. Buy it, it took almost as long as Hypefactor to do it!

F

The Weekend in Photos

This was the first weekend in recent memory where we were not travelling or about to travel or obligated to some holiday related activity. So here are some of the weekend's highlights told in photos:

On Friday night, while on our way out to get some Aussie food, a pair of shoes was found in our elevator. As of this writing they have yet to be claimed:



Saturday saw the return of the Hypefactor experionce as the song "one.nine.five.six" was prepped for mixing:



Brandt's dog was not impressed:



Somewhere in San Francisco, Ro Ro happily played:



Arriving early for the Editors gig (which was moved 4 times before ending up at Rothko), Irene was photographed by some girl who looked like Selma Blair, and was a photographer for Spin Magazine, who was impressed by Irene's outfit (top by All Saints of London):



Then the Editors came on and they simply owned it. Of all the recent Joy Division inspired-bands in recent memory, I feel these guys are the best. The live show is a much more enjoyable affair than the album (which I like a lot). The album is very cold and distant, but live the songs are passionate and hard. The frontman, Tom Smith, is fucking intense and the band delivers big time. It was a short, tight set and completely worth the drama that everyone went through. This is a great gig to start the year on:



Then to top it off, my hero, Mr. Peter "Morrissey Is a Twat so don't ask me to spin The Smiths" Hook, DJ'd the Editors afterparty at Fontana's. :



Irene, yet again, was able to secure us some VIP shit that put us in the upstairs section where he was DJing, so that was a treat. This was fun, especially when joined by Danny and Lurch, but sadly the hipster and douche overload became too much and we bailed halfway through the set for some pizza. However, it was a nice way to spend a Saturday night

I have no pictures of today mostly cause we were lazy, did some shopping, and then went to the streets of Stewart Manor to visit family and to help my younger cousin move into my old bedroom because she is going to college nearby. We got a homecooked meal and drank the usual large quantities of wine and tea. While cleaning out my room for said cousin, I found a box containing every lyric I ever wrote from 1990 to about 1995. ohhhh embarassing. The advantage of being a packrat!

Anyhow, I hope you're well.

F

TONS of Fun

Irene and I braved unkind weather conditions and made our way to Montreal this past holiday weekend. It was a surreal drive of rain and tons and tons of fog. It was kinda cool yet a bit freaky at times, especially when you can't see too far in front of you. However, it was traffic free and this being my fourth time to Montreal in less than a year, the drive is becoming familiar and easier. It was a brief yet worthy trip, as Irene's mom was in Montreal taking care of our nephew (who's mother is in Italy on business). This of course leads to the best homecooked food I have ever eaten and I still am full from the meals. Ok, so Montreal is fucking FREEZING. The 10 minutes we spent walking my nephew to the schoolbus on Monday in 6 degree weather with some assrape windchill level was the coldest shit I heve ever been in. My tea fucking froze. Seriously. Anyway, how much do I love my nephew? So much that I didn't regret missing MANI DJ, but Danny made up for but being held by the man while he spun Primals. He told Danny the new album is "different". I can't fucking wait!

In my further efforts to close the book on the aggression once and for all, Irene and I took a quick pit-stop on our way back to NY Monday to see original aggression member Chris Link (who appears on REVISIONIST HISTORY) and his lovely family. We hadn't seem them in a while and this was a super time. He and Nina's daughter, Lucy, is a beauty and totally adorable. We spoiled her with books and fun stuff and enjoyed every second of it. Good friends, good times.

With that, I have now had the opportunity to see every member of the aggression that ever was, except Kieran, who is somewhere out there. So this is my official thanks for the memories to Kieran who kept the ship afloat as we made the post Mark transition into FLOOD. Cheers.

Back to reality now as I currently, finally, have no travel plans, no familial obligations or fragile high school reunion shit to worry about. With that, I'm back in the full swing of work and music and happy to be back in NY for an extended period because it's time to get the Hypefactor experionce (correct spelling) in motion. While travelling around from city to country, several things have entered my mind to discuss with you, so here we go:

*Ash likes to use the word PARODY when it comes to many of the musicians we grew up with. Often times, such as the case of Johnny Marr (for whom said gimmick was invented), I disagree, but I must take this moment and call out my former hero Uncle Al Jourgensen and declare him a parody. He has taken the last great brand in his arsenal, The Revolting Cocks and has ruined it forever by releasing some horrendous shit called COCKED AND LOADED, which is the most horrible shit I have ever heard. NONE of the original important members. This is the worst. My childhood has been raped. Al, I am happy you are alive and healthy, and I look forward to the Ministry album I will listen to once, but STOP it and fire whoever told you this was a good idea.

* I fucking HATE The Strokes, but goddammit the first song on the new album, which is called YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE is stuck in my brain nonstop. It's Lou Reed by numbers and I love it. Shit. Irene and I saw the singer the other night in Virgin and he was deceptively tall. I am not a height whore, but I added that before G could ask me.

*Matt Gentile owes me a large cash sum for our Sisters of Mercy tickets, but the question is, will it be worth it? No new album. STILL. I find myself thinking about the gig, and then I realize theres no bassist and something called Robochrist is playing guitar and my hopes shatter. In my own silly way, I have bought a Mission 20th Anniversary Tshirt to wear to the gig just to be a douche.

* I decided while driving that Kevin Kline is an underrated genius. Discuss.

*24 returned to my TV and 4 hours later, I need therapy. Killing major characters in the first 5 minutes is great booking. When Palmer came on, i said to irene "he's so dead this season" and i couldn't finish the sentence and the motherfucker was dead. Goodbye Mr. President. Best show ever. EVER.

There's more, but this is plenty for now.

F

The Obituary: Continued

From Jared's post at H-Bar: "I haven’t seen The Aggression in many years and this was their last show ever. Yet another bittersweet fleck of the whole weekend. Seeing them reminded me of so many little flash-segments of evenings across the city, the shutter lightening-snapping, my sweaty arm draped over FJ as I streamed drunken 1’s and 0’s in his ear so many cycles ago. The band were tight and mean tonight and meant every word of it, and then they were gone for good."



From The Sick City boards: "also of note was hype's very own aggression who played a tight set. 30 min of down and dirty rock. snagged a aggression shirt which everyone should contact FJ about obtaining. Its a sweet design. ill post my pics from the spoken word and hotel debauchry later on tonight. also buy the new remix cd"



Thanks to Dorg and XE for the pix.

Airblog

In order to escape the post-aggression madness and eventual backlash, your hero (that’s me) quickly got out of town and went right to San Francisco to spend a few days working at the Presidio’s new Letterman Digital Arts Center and spending time with the original lead singer and family. Though he has long since abandoned the world of music and all things aggression (it just took us a decade to follow suit), he is quite proficient at making beautiful, smart and funny children with his witty and charming wife who, despite having seen the aggression in the past, actually allowed me to babysit the infant for a few hours (full success). At Irene’s request, no fewer than hundreds of photos were taken.

All joking aside, San Fran is the top shit here on the left coast. I could live here quite easily. I’m eager to return for more family time. In fact, I hear Chemlab is gonna make an appearance here in March….hmmm.

As I type, I am catching up on my new favourite past time: podcasts. Brandt turned me onto the Pulseblack one and upon entering that world, I find myself listening to that and a whole lot of wrestling news. The future, kids, and a great way to avoid watching Sam Jackson starring in “THE MAN” on the plane. Though I admit to extreme exhaustion and caving in to watch Reese Witherspoon in JUST LIKE HEAVEN but most cause Napoleon Dynamite. Lurch Ruffalo should fire his agent. Really.

New York looms ahead but my time there is brief as Montreal beckons once again for the holiday weekend. This doesn’t mean I love you any less, but let’s keep in touch.

F

The End of Everything.

And so it ended in front of a packed, receptive house, complete with lots of techincal problems and the beautiful chaos that to me has always been and was the aggression. I don't think I can blog in detail about it. I think I want it to exist romantically in my head forever. The club, especially Ben, were exceptionally nice to us, and what can I say about Maja and of course Jared, my brother, my hero, alive, healthy, well happy and all these years later, still a supporter of the aggression. I love it. The gig was Dan Hamill approved, and in the end, that's enough for me.


It was a total pleasure seeing many old face and meeting some new ones (Hydra, Wade, Burton, Gabriel, so many Hbar and Sick City kids), especially the folks from other bands I have liked over the years. Special thank you to our friends and family who came out to celebrate the end of everything and kudos to Rob and Todd from our label DBR, who presented us with our new album REVISIONIST HISTORY, which came out super and is totally worth your time.


Finally, above, the aggression cast and crew assemble for what will be known as "the last photo ever" from "the last gig ever"


One of the hightlights of the show was reuniting with my dear friend El from Acumen and his lovely girlfriend, Adora, who I hadn't see in years. These are classy fucking Chicagoans and Irene and I enjoyed our late night meal with them. Good friends, good times and it was nice to have some of the crack family back in my life.

As I wrote to the crew last night before I left for San Francisco: I can vividly remember saying a decade ago that the only person who would give a shit about the aggression 10 years later would be just me. I'm very happy that you guys have proven me wrong. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you guys for busting your asses for this gig. It was a fun ride and it was a great band, certainly my favourite band ever. I look forward to our arguing the tracklisting for "the best of" (which already has a title), later this year.

And now, onward to the future. To Hypefactor and ILM and beyond.

F

PS: I will continue to add photos from the gig on here as they come in, I have very few so far so I apologize...

Famous furniture

I'm not sure exactly what to say about this...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dining-table-as-owned-by-Ian-Curtis-of-Joy-Division_W0QQitemZ7578886369QQcategoryZ20079QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

From the Sanctuary Records Web site...

"Morrissey will return to the spotlight this Spring, with the release of a brand new album.

Scheduled for a 6th April release, 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' is the charismatic singer's eighth solo studio album to date and follows hot on the heels of 2004's Platinum selling 'You Are The Quarry'.

The first single to be lifted from the album will be the Morrissey/Jesse Tobias-penned track 'You Have Killed Me,' which will be released on 20th March on three formats."

From jmarr.com...

"First of all a Happy New Year to you all! And we kick off with the news that The Healers' second album will be released in Spring 2006."


The anticipation begins.

A Day In the Life...

Just to give you some insight into a day in the life of the MOGpac, I wanted to post this slice of life between the former Stewart Manor All-Stars/Gold Street Boys. For your information, G is G and I am F:

G: You are an idiot. i told a woman to shut up the other day...that was funny...and sad.

F: What woman! Tell me this, i love when you are cruel to women. Did you slap her?

G: Just this women on the way to the subway, she thought i was gonna run her over or something, but I saw her and moved away but I guess she didn't think I was going to and jumped out of the way

F: Slap!

G: so I walk past her and she starts screaming at me "HAVE U EVER HEARD THE PHRASE EXCUSE ME" and I'm like...yeah. writing this exchange really won't do it justice, as it's stupid. But the end of it was telling her to shut up...

F: lol. iIjust literally laughed out loud.

G: it kind of took me by surprise, as there was venom in my voice. and the lady looked like a deer in headlights and just kinda stuttered a bit and said nothing (she's literally walking right behind me at this point) but i think what scared her is the way I said it probably sounded like the way her first husband said it before he smacked her around, so I guess she thought I meant business.

F: Wow

F: Could you blog this?

F: Can i copy this and blog it?

F: Please?

F:Come on man

*10 minutes later*

G: Alright

Free At Last

Today marked the end of my civil service as Jury Duty came to a close after 4 very long weeks. On paper, it sucks, but actually, in the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I was on Grand Jury, which is about indicting people, not about determining guilt or innoncence. Therefore, I heard many cases, over 60 actually, throughout the term, some of which were extremely interesting (and you may have read about in the papers), others not so. We only had one true nasty case, which was towards the end and scared the living fuck out of me, but it could have been a lot worse. Our jury, consisting of 23 people from all walks of life here in this wonderful city that I live in, were very nice people and we all got along very well. During the strike, a lot of juries were combined to make up for the lack of jurors and I was disappointed by the folks on the other juries. After that, our jury was a much tighter and appreciative unit. Slower moments or midday breaks were often entertaining (at least not boring) and while I don't think I will ever see any of these people again, the experience was interesting.

I learned a lot of cool things about the law and I again find myself increasingly fascinated by the legal process (in various areas) which has been a minor hobby for the last 10 years. While I doubt I could have survived law school in any way shape or form, I continually find myself engaged by the law and how it works. Early in the term, when we were dealing with what are considered to be lighter cases, I daydreamed about life as a DA or a cop of some kind, but once the serious shit kicked in and I saw the other side of that world, I quickly said fuck no. I was shocked by the amount of crime that goes on around us (that we don't even know about), but equally impressed by our city's law enforcers and their skill at protecting us. We have an excellent police department here that works hard and responds fast to help their citizens. Top Notch.

While I am in no rush to do it again, and am exempt from serving till the year 2013 (or 2014, I'm not sure), I would hope that if I have to do it again, it would be on the Grand Jury.

F

VERY IMPORTANT

I am not a political man, nor do I involve myself in world affairs, but this is near and dear to my heart:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/international/03cnd-sturgeon.html?hp

F

Give The Gift of MOG

Hey Kids! The holidays are over, but what better way to start your year off than with the absolutely best present for your loved ones: A limited edition T-Shirt commemorating the the aggression's LAST SHOW EVER which is happening THIS SATURDAY NIGHT. Kids LOVE guns, as proven here as the original lead singer, now father of two, displays said shirt to his aggression loving 2 year old.

Despite my footing the bill for these bad boys, I have no idea how you get one of these T-shirts other than you show up Saturday night and buy one. I doubt they will cost much, if they cost anything, or if there will even be any left by the time Saturday comes. So act quickly or be..um...someone not wearing a gun on their boobs. Special thanks to MURRAY for handling the shirt manufacturing!

Bi-Curious about the gig? Details are at www.myspace.com/theaggression

Ok. See you Saturday. Some of you.

2006...

Did you have enough time?
Did you return the call?
Did you make it special?
Did you get the message?
Did you remember how that felt?
Did you see the look on her face?
Did you find what it was about?
Did you forget?
Did you tune your guitar?
Did you show your appreciation?
Did you pack a lunch?
Did you dream a little dream, motherfucker?
Did you tip well?
Did you hear that?
Did you charge your phone?
Did you tell them?
Did you sleep in?
Did you remember to make sure they knew?
Did you make the time?
Did you do everything you said you would?
Did you make your deadline?
Did you clean your mess?
Did you take your time?
Did you laugh?
Did you set the alarm?
Did you hurt?
Did you earn respect?
Did you deserve it?
Did you stick to the plan?
Did you have a good year?
Did you know this pretentious blog entry was inspired by Nick Rhodes?


Did you?